Month: May 2014

Did you think I’d forgotten about you? I hadn’t at all, but it’s fierce hard mammying two young fellas, working full time outside the home and writing for deadly new Irish parenting website parent.ie (See my cute tree over there on the left) I’m very proud of it, and my association with it, but with all that going on I’ve been neglecting my own little space over here.

My boys are flying. Doing too well almost, if we stay in the house for the day the endless requests for snacks just grinds me down. These snacks can be bananas and mandarins now, it’s not necessarily rubbish though “noooo, something from the red box” is the most common refrain. Obviously this old biscuit tin is where I kept my biccies and chocolate undisturbed by small sticky hands til they wised up to me. For years I got away with having the balance of power food wise in the house. Now the eldest is very forthright about what he does and doesn’t want, and true to the nature of second siblings, his younger brother is showing single mindedness in every regard at a younger age. We have a rule with the elder, you can’t say you don’t like it if you don’t try it, inspired by these crazy Yo Gabba Gabba guys (it’s on Netflix, Season 1 Ep 1 – Eat!)

And though I don’t always get my way, we’ve hit a happy medium. Tonight we were having some ‘smashed’ roast potatoes (broken slightly with a potato masher half way through cooking), roast veggies and then some quorn fillets (fillets of what! The name weirds me out a bit, but if I’m going to eat fake meat I can deal with it I guess).

I stuffed the ‘fillets’ in the manner you would with a chicken breast, so you can do the same with that if you like.

Defrost your quorn fillets either in the fridge overnight, or with a little water in a bowl in the microwave for a few minutes – low wattage, 5 minutes.

Cut the fillets in half and spoon the filling in, close the fillet again.

For the coating:

50g of panko breadcrumbs

1 tablespoon flaxseed

Mix these 2 together. I get the panko breadcrumbs in Tesco, €1 for 150g.

Brush the stuffed fillets with olive oil, and coat in the crumb mixture.

Bake at 200c for 25 minutes.

Now, here’s the rub. I had a willing audience for these in the form of the 22 month old and 4 year old. But dear reader, my veggie ways hold no sway with my husband when he decides he is going all roar, caveman and eating meat. He decided nothing would do him but to cook bloody venison steak on the griddle pan. Both little beggars pushed their plates towards his and pleaded in their unique ways for a share. They ate their flax-laced veggie dish, and they ate some medium venison steak. “Eat Bambi” I hissed resentfully at the toddler, “go on”. And he did, and then he pushed his plate to me and said “more!”, indicating seconds were required of the first course. Truly a mix of both their parents, and happy healthy eaters to boot. I know I can’t complain.